# Humidor seasoning questions with Boveda



## Rads (Feb 10, 2019)

Hey all,

New guy here....in the process of finishing the seasoning a Daniel Marshall 100 ct humidor with 84% Boveda packs. So my question is Boveda recommends seasoning for 14 days with the 84% packs. Is this really necessary? Right now I'm at day 11. I plan on using 69% humidity packs once I'm done seasoning. So after you put in the regular packs do you immediately put cigars into the humidor or do you put the regular humidity packs into the humor and let the humidity level stabilize before putting in cigars? Since the Boveda packs are 2-way any excess humidity should be absorbed by the packs (I hope). 

Thanks for reading this long question....

Rads


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

Leave em for AT LEAST 14 days. Short cuts in the beginning add to problems later. 

After that add you boveda packs and something to take up the dead space that your cigars will. Maybe sealed Tupperware, blown up ziploc bag. Something that won't suck up rh but will take up space. 

Leave it to stabilize for a couple days. Then add your sticks. 

Make sure your digital hygrometer is calibrated. 

Expect your RH to fluctuate when you first add sticks. They'll be releasing or sucking up humidity. Depending on their RH. 

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## Olecharlie (Oct 28, 2017)

I have a DM 150 ct. Yes 14 days at minimum to allow the SC to soak up all the humidity possible. If you want to speed the process put some distilled water in a small bowl and sit inside. Do not wet down the inside with DW. I hope you have a digital Hygrometer, much more accurate than analog. The bottoms of wood Humidors can be very thin even some DM’s may need a sheet or two of SC to line the bottom if it seems thin. I use 65% Bovedas all preferences based on your taste but to me the 62-65 range makes for the best smoking stick. Add the 69% Bovedas and monitor humidity once it comes down add the sticks, it will function the best with 3/4 full, of course the cigars depending on their state will soak up some RH. What you don’t want to do is go over on the RH, anything above 72 is a mistake. You may have some variations on RH in the beginning but 3 or 4 percent doesn’t call for panic. The location of the Humidor is important, I keep mine in the basement area where it’s cooler and less humidity. Wood is great but a little more work. In the winter I have to change to 72% to keep my RH at 65%, it has a lot to do with where you live, a state like Florida with lots of Humidity make things more difficult. 

In the future if you want to expand your collection look into Cigar Coolers, they are great and easy to maintain compared to wood. 

Don’t get discouraged it’s really easier that it sounds. Enjoy!

We have some some well experienced Aficionados in this community. The Moderators are very knowledgeable so take their advise when they speak. I’m not as experienced as many here. 

Cheers


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## Rads (Feb 10, 2019)

Thanks for your responses....Will definitely wait a few more days and let my DM humidor season some more. I did pick up a few cigars today at one of my favorite places, JR Cigar, and the salesguy at the counter recommended I buy several of their alternative cigar blends and use them as filler to make sure I have at least 50% capacity in the humidor. He also said put your main cigars on top of those. Does this recommendation make sense to you? I do plan to stock up once my humidor is out of the seasoning phase.


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

To ensure that your relative humidity will stabilize it's wise to try and keep the inside 3/4 full as the exchange of the humidity will fluctuate .....esp. after seasoning. Adding new cigars is going to change so be ready and not chase the numbers ...let your media do the work and don't start biting your fingernails off....patience. 

As far as putting your main cigars on top of the other ones... in a humidor of that size doesn't really change anything because every cigar inside the humidor is going to acclimate to the relative humidity that is inside... so not sure what the sales person is talking about... 😗


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

The only thing that would make sense is that you won't have to dig through the others to get to your regular smokers. 

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## Bird-Dog (Oct 16, 2009)

Rads said:


> Thanks for your responses....Will definitely wait a few more days and let my DM humidor season some more. I did pick up a few cigars today at one of my favorite places, JR Cigar, and the salesguy at the counter recommended I buy several of their alternative cigar blends and use them as filler to make sure I have at least 50% capacity in the humidor. He also said put your main cigars on top of those. Does this recommendation make sense to you? I do plan to stock up once my humidor is out of the seasoning phase.


LOL!!!!!!! Not laughing at you @*Rads*, rather at the JR sales-schmuck's attempt to extract more money from you as "space filler". Pretty sure he said to put your good cigars on top so's you don't accidentally smoke one those crappy JR Alternatives. :surprise:

Anyway, don't do it! If you're anything like the rest of us, and even remotely susceptible to the "enabling" that goes on around here, you'll be filling your humidor up with better cigars soon enough instead. Sticking a closed tupper or some air pillows in there in the meantime will be just fine. I mention the air pillows (the type that are used to fill extra space in shipping cartons) because if you use several to start with they make for an easy way to tailor the amount of space filler as your cigar inventory grows, removing one each time you add a few cigars.


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## Rads (Feb 10, 2019)

Or maybe use narrow ziploc bags to take up space? I will put in my 69% packs Friday night as Wednesday is day 14. So the following week I will load up my humidor with cigars.....


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## Rads (Feb 10, 2019)

Ok...so I'm done seasoning and I put in the 69% packs hoping the humidity level would drop to 69% after a few days but it looks like its stabilized at 72%. I have not put in any cigars yet as I wanted the levels to first stabilize at 69% first than put in cigars. Does this make sense or should I just put in the cigars and let the humidor stabilize with the cigars inside?


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

Rads said:


> Ok...so I'm done seasoning and I put in the 69% packs hoping the humidity level would drop to 69% after a few days but it looks like its stabilized at 72%. I have not put in any cigars yet as I wanted the levels to first stabilize at 69% first than put in cigars. Does this make sense or should I just put in the cigars and let the humidor stabilize with the cigars inside?


If you have a couple dried up boveda packs toss them in your box , they'll soak up the extra RH. Remember you put boveda packs in that are set at 69%and waiting for them to suck up moisture. After all they try to stabilize at 69 so there's really not much they can soak up quickly. They will eventually but it could take awhile.

If the sticks are fresh they may actually raise the RH higher so I'd hold off on that

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## Shaver702 (Jan 27, 2016)

Did you put brand new boveda bags in? The bags can only soak up so much humidity. Typically when i season a humidor, the day or 2 before I take out the 84% I open the 69% or 65% and let them sit on my desk. This allows them to release some water prior to placing them in the new humidor. The drier bags will soak up the excess humidity better, IMO.


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## Rads (Feb 10, 2019)

Hey all....


Looks like its time to stock up the humidor. Its been holding at 67% for the past day. It turns out I had to recalibrate the Boveda hygrometer. I became suspicious of the Boveda hygrometer because the hygrometer that came with the DM humidor read several percent lower than the Boveda hygrometer. Than I thought "is the DM hygrometer correct"? So I checked it's calibration and it was spot on. After putting the recalibrated Boveda back in my humidor they are now reading the same relative humidity.....


I did leave the 69% packs out outside the humidor overnight and that might have helped also......


Thanks all for your great advice......


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

We enjoy helping out. Stick around, join some passes and pifs and you'll have a reason to season another. 

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## Rads (Feb 10, 2019)

I definitely intend to.....already watching the WTS forums to see what people are selling...


At this point I am still learning what I like...So far I do like Romeo and Juliet and Padron...especially the 1926 blends...Wow!


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## Rads (Feb 10, 2019)

Looking for some more guidance....So I thought I had my humidor up and running,....got tripped up by an uncalibrated hygrometer so here is where I stand right now. I loaded my humidor with about 30 sticks and wound up putting 72% boveda's in my 100-ct humidor. Both hygrometers are reading 65% and my room humidity is about 11%. Seems crazy right? So my question is my humidor's humidity level too low? I was hoping the humidity would be around 67-69% but maybe its too dry where the humidor is located?


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

Rads said:


> Looking for some more guidance....So I thought I had my humidor up and running,....got tripped up by an uncalibrated hygrometer so here is where I stand right now. I loaded my humidor with about 30 sticks and wound up putting 72% boveda's in my 100-ct humidor. Both hygrometers are reading 65% and my room humidity is about 11%. Seems crazy right? So my question is my humidor's humidity level too low? I was hoping the humidity would be around 67-69% but maybe its too dry where the humidor is located?


To me 65 is perfect..

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## Peapaw (Oct 12, 2018)

Rads said:


> Looking for some more guidance....So I thought I had my humidor up and running,....got tripped up by an uncalibrated hygrometer so here is where I stand right now. I loaded my humidor with about 30 sticks and wound up putting 72% boveda's in my 100-ct humidor. Both hygrometers are reading 65% and my room humidity is about 11%. Seems crazy right? So my question is my humidor's humidity level too low? I was hoping the humidity would be around 67-69% but maybe its too dry where the humidor is located?


Most folks here keep their sticks at 65%.

Sent from somewhere on the road.


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## OneStrangeOne (Sep 10, 2016)

Rads said:


> Looking for some more guidance....So I thought I had my humidor up and running,....got tripped up by an uncalibrated hygrometer so here is where I stand right now. I loaded my humidor with about 30 sticks and wound up putting 72% boveda's in my 100-ct humidor. Both hygrometers are reading 65% and my room humidity is about 11%. Seems crazy right? So my question is my humidor's humidity level too low? I was hoping the humidity would be around 67-69% but maybe its too dry where the humidor is located?


Yeah, if the room is only 11% you're doing good to get 65 in the humidor. You can set a shot glass of distilled water in the humidor and it will help. If your room humidity is low consistently then you have to be prepared for a fair amount of maintenance.


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

OneStrangeOne said:


> Yeah, if the room is only 11% you're doing good to get 65 in the humidor. You can set a shot glass of distilled water in the humidor and it will help. If your room humidity is low consistently then you have to be prepared for a fair amount of maintenance.


Some wood humidors can be stubborn for one reason or another and usually it's because it's made with inferior product for the cedar bottom is much too thin so then it becomes a process of adding a little bit more cedar on the bottom and then ensuring that the media that you have Lowell meet the needs to keep a stable environment which lot of people have a goal of 65% .

I have a few older humidors so I keep a shot glass an and that usually will do the trick and I only have two we fill a shot glass once a month and it keeps things pretty stable.... I pretty much use kitty litter as my relative humidity but when outside humidity gets too low that shot glass of distilled water returns things where they belong.


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